The SERT® 1.x Suite

The SERT Suite was created by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC), the world's leading organization for benchmarking expertise, at the request of the US Environmental Protection Agency. It is intended to measure server energy efficiency, initially as part of the second generation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR for Computer Servers program. Designed to be simple to configure and use via a comprehensive graphical user interface, the SERT suite uses a set of synthetic worklets to test discrete system components such as processors, memory and storage, providing detailed power consumption data at different load levels. Results are provided in both machine- and human-readable forms, enabling automatic submission to government-sponsored certification programs as well as both summary and detail reports for use by potential customers.

Update notices:

July 21st, 2017: Updated client-configurations.xml for the SERT Suite versions V1.1.0+ released
• Intel Xeon Scalable processor family support added
• AMD EPYC processor support added

Jun 20th, 2017: Due to a known issue in Microsoft Windows Server 2016 memory management, the SERT suite will not be supported on that operating system until a fix is made available.

Mar 28th, 2017: Major new SERT suite version release, users are encouraged to move to the SERT Suite Version 2.0

The EPA’s ENERGY STAR for Computer Server Specification version 2 and SPEC

SPEC applauds the EPA for its goal to drive toward greater energy efficiency in IT Equipment, and SPEC considers the EPA ENERGY STAR Program an industry partner in this effort. The development of an Active Mode Efficiency Rating Tool is an essential component in the ongoing effort to reduce worldwide energy consumption and paves the way for a successful ENERGY STAR for Computer Server program that has the potential to harmonize energy efficiency programs worldwide.

SPEC welcomes this opportunity to work with the EPA on the SERT suite in support of the ENERGY STAR Specification for Computer Server v2 and is proudly looking forward to continuing our long-standing association with the EPA ENERGY STAR Development Team.

Development of the SERT suite is an international effort, with interest being expressed in adoption by national bodies from the European Union, China, Japan and Korea.

Government Programs that use the SERT suite

EPA Energy Star v2.0 for Servers

Information

Press Releases
Press release material, documents, and announcements:  

The SERT Tool 1.1.0 Release Announcement  (March 2015)
SPEC releases the SERT tool (Server Efficiency Rating Tool)   (February 2013)
SERT Tool Beta Release Announcement  (September 2012)
Beta Testers Sought  (June 2012)

Documentation
Technical and support documents, run and reporting rules, etc.

JVM Options Guide for v1.1.1
JVM Options Guide for v1.0.2 and earlier
User Guide 
Mandarin Chinese User Guide 
Run and Reporting Rules
Result File Field Descriptions 

Technical Design Documents:   
          Design Overview
          The PTDaemon® Interface Design

Power and Performance Methodology
Accepted Measurement Devices

Training/Demo session

A training/demo session on the SERT tool was held on January 23, 2013 from 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM CST at the Austin Convention Center in conjunction with the SPEC Annual Meeting in Austin, TX.

Presentation from the EPA 
Training Presentation 

Support

Technical support requiring involvement of specialists is done by volunteers from our member institutions (see member list). Please do not send us any proprietary information in your queries.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Installation and runtime issues raised by users of the SERT tool.
Support Forums for SERT, Chauffeur WDK and PTDaemon
Support Request Form
Power Measurement Setup Guide

Updates

A new major version of the SERT Suite was released March 28th, 2017. SERT users are encouraged to move to the SERT 2 Suite.

Credits

SERT Credits